Students in Gardner schools will lose part of April vacation

The school year will end on June 21 after a decision was made to have students attend school for three days of April vacation and one day that had been a teacher professional development day.

The city schools had nine snow days this year, four more than the number included in the school calendar.

The decision to give up four days off was made after about 60 percent of parents responding to a survey indicated they preferred giving up the vacation and the May 2 professional development day rather than going later into the summer.

A third option would have been attending school only on the professional development day and going three days later in the year.

The School Department's April vacation was to be April 15 through 19, including Patriot's Day.

Students will now have Patriot's Day off, go to school the next three days and then have Friday, April 19, off.